2020 Speakers

Dr. Ahmad Sheikh, Ph.D., joined the organization in 2003 and is now Director of Pharmaceutical Development. An industry-wide expert in solid state chemistry with more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical process development, he has been pivotal in the development and commercialization of a broad range of AbbVie medicines, including Viekira, Venclexta, Mavyret, Orilissa and Rinvoq. Dr. Sheikh earned B.Eng. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University College London in the UK. He has authored over 22 scientific papers, 3 book chapters and 20 patents.

Philippe Lienard obtained his PhD in organic chemistry at the CNRS, French National Research Center, in Pr Husson’s team, in 1991. After having performed a post-doc in the prestigious Pr Oppolzer’s laboratory in Switzerland, he joined SYNTHELABO in 1993 in chemical development. He occupied several positions including Head of Pilot Plant for 12 years. In 2003, He was expatriated in the USA for 3 years for SANOFI, as Chemical Development Director. Back to France in 2006, he has been working within early Pharmaceutical Sciences Department for 10 years and he’s currently Pre Development Science leader for several programs at the interface of Research and Development.

Dr. Helen Hou joined the Department of Small Molecule Pharmaceutical Sciences at Genentech (South San Francisco, California) in 2015. In her current role as a Senior Scientist, she is responsible for drug product development to allow fast-entry into human and the definition of market-image formulation/process. Prior to joining Genentech, Helen worked in several industrial positions at Allergan (2013 –2015), AbbVie (2008 – 2013), and Amgen (2006 – 2007), specialized in development of oral solid dosage forms and sterile product for ophthalmology. Helen received her Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Minnesota in 2006, where she did research in development of novel intranasal formulation for the treatment of epilepsy. Her primary research interests include understanding the effect of solubilizing additives on the manufacturability and release behavior of high-energy solids, and designing in vitro models for the prediction of in vivo performance of supersaturating solid dosage forms.

Bharathi Vellalore is a Pharmaceutical Scientist with >12 years of cross-functional research experience in discovery and development of cyclic peptides, small-proteins,  antibody-based molecules and cell therapy products for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Before joining Janssen Drug Product Development, he conducted postdoctoral research in the Saskatoon Translational Cancer Research Cluster and Janssen Biotherapeutics. Bharathi earned his MSc and PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada (2017) and BTech in Biotechnology from Anna University, India (2008).

Jace Blackburn is a Smart Device Engineer at Genentech where he oversees development of Connected Device Platforms to improve the patient experience and enable new digital strategies for the business. He holds multiple certifications in Product Management and brings expertise on the development of software as a medical devices, connected devices, and digital combination products. He holds a degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder and is currently pursuing a Masters in Bioinformatics from Johns Hopkins University.

Eugene graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Villanova University in Villanova, PA. After finishing his undergraduate study in 1983, he joined West Pharmaceutical Services where he served in a number of technical, quality, and customer-support roles. In 1999 Eugene graduated with a Master’s degree in business administration from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Eugene has more than 30 years of experience working with primary parenteral packaging systems from research and development to quality control to technical sales support. Eugene joined Datwyler in 2017 as a technical key account manager working side-by-side with key account and commercial development managers, focusing on technical sales management and mitigating technical issues for Datwyler’s largest clients.

David is currently the VP of Research at Insmed, Inc, where he is part of a team developing novel, targeted therapies to help serve the critical unmet needs of patients battling serious rare diseases. Prior to joining Insmed in 2018, David worked at Aradigm (1996 to 2018) covering all phases of product development and led the development of preclinical research, CMC activities and intellectual property. Prior to joining Aradigm, David worked at Genentech, Inc. (1988 to 1996) developing and characterizing the delivery of protein aerosols to the airways, culminating with the approval of Pulmozyme® rhDNase for the management of cystic fibrosis in 1993. David holds a chemical engineering degree from MIT (SB) and UC Davis (MS) and a pharmacy degree from the University of Sydney (PhD).

Gabriele Sadowski is full professor for Thermodynamics at TU Dortmund University. She is member of the Academy of Science and Arts North Rhine-Westphalia and of the German Academy of Engineering Sciences. She is the chair of the German working party Thermodynamics and the German Representative in the European working party Thermodynamics and Transport Properties. Gabriele Sadowski is author of about 200 scientific publications in high-reputation journals in the field of chemical, biochemical and pharmaceutical engineering. The main focus of her research is studying thermodynamic properties of complex systems with particular emphasis but not restricted to those containing biological and pharmaceutical molecules. To model the thermodynamic stability of those systems she developed the currently worldwide most-used thermodynamic model PC-SAFT which was published in 2001. She received numerous awards for her work, the most-prestigious one being the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award of the German Science Foundation in 2011.

Chris joined Quotient Sciences in 2015 as a Research Fellow, bringing over 20 years’ experience across pharmaceutical sciences and biopharmaceutics through a series of previous technical and leadership roles at Sanofi, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Walgreens Boots Alliance. His expertise ranges from early pre‑formulation and biopharmaceutical assessments ensuring appropriate new chemical entity selection, through development of a wide range of dosage forms including preclinical and early clinical inhalation, topical, oral immediate release and modified release formulations, to maintenance and life-cycle management of existing marketed products. Chris’ role at Quotient involves designing science­-­led, robust, clinical study programs which maximise output for clients, in addition to providing scientific support throughout study delivery. Chris holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Medicinal Chemistry from Newcastle University and Postgraduate Certificate in Education from Nottingham Trent University.

Dr Mike Tobyn is a Research Fellow in Materials Science and Engineering within Bristol-Myers Squibb, Moreton, leading a transatlantic team covering early to late phase products, and manufactured products. His team studies API and excipient properties and their interaction with pharmaceutical processes. He has been at BMS for 13 years, following jobs in Academia and working with a company from start-up to IPO. He has published more than 75 papers in the area of formulation and Pharmaceutical Materials Science. The understanding of the complex interactions in Pharmaceutical Materials Science has led Mike to investigate techniques of data analysis as it pertains to R&D and production, of small and large molecules. 2018 saw the publication of the book he edited with Dr Ana Ferreira and Professor Jose Menezes entitled “Multivariate Analysis in the Pharmaceutical Industry” covering the technical and regulatory aspects of MVA and associated techniques.

Tejal Desai is the Ernest L Prien Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences within the Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), the director of the NIH training grant for the Joint Graduate Program in Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and UCSF, and the founding director of the UCSF/UC Berkeley Masters Program in Translational Medicine. Professor Desai’s research spans multiple disciplines including materials engineering, cell biology, tissue engineering, and pharmacological delivery systems to address issues concerning disease and clinical translation. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles. Her research is at the cutting-edge in precision medicine, enabled by advancements in micro and nanotechnology, engineering, and cell biology directed to clinical challenges in disease treatment. By taking advantage of the current understanding of how cells respond to engineered materials and the fabrication of well-defined extracellular microenvironments, she seeks to design new platforms to overcome existing challenges in therapeutic delivery. Her research efforts have earned recognition including Technology Review’s "Top 100 Young Innovators,” Popular Science’s Brilliant 10, and NSF’s New Century Scholar. Some of her other honors include the Eurand Grand Prize Award for innovative drug delivery technology, the Young Career Award from the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE EMBS), the Dawson Biotechnology award, and both the UC Berkeley and Brown University Distinguished Engineering Alumni awards. Recently, she was named Chair-Elect of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows. In 2015, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine Professor Desai is a vocal advocate for STEM education and outreach to underrepresented minority students, collaborating with educational groups such as the Lawrence Hall of Science and the Exploratorium. She received her B.S. from Brown University in biomedical engineering and was awarded a Ph.D. in bioengineering jointly from UCSF and UCB.

Dr Vivek Trivedi graduated with a BPharmacy (1st Class) in 2002. After a short stint in industry, he enrolled for MSc in Pharmaceutical Science in 2003. He worked as a development scientist in Phoqus Pharmaceutical Ltd after completing his masters before returning back to university to undertake a PhD in 2007. His PhD topic involved the development of novel drug delivery systems for the oral delivery of biomolecules. He graduated in 2010 and, was appointed as a Lecturer in Formulation Science in the University of Greenwich, where he stayed until April 2019 before moving to the University of Kent. Dr Trivedi's research is centred around two areas; solubility improvement of BCS II drugs and oral delivery of biomolecules. His interests strongly revolve around the use of green processing methods, in particular, supercritical carbon dioxide to develop suitable strategies for drug delivery. He is currently working on a delivery platform known as Solid Core Drug Delivery System (SCDDS) for the delivery of biomolecules. This entails incorporation/immobilisation of biomolecules onto inorganic host materials which can potentially improve their thermal and chemical stability. These biologics on the inorganic hosts are then coated with the suitable excipients to target them to lower intestine and provide sustained release. He is also interested in the preparation of cyclodextrin-drug complexes and determining solid-liquid transition of pharmaceutical actives and APIs in supercritical CO2. He has attracted funding from various industrial sources as well as Royal Society and Royal Society of Chemistry to conduct research in areas summarised above.

Ijeoma Uchegbu is Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at the UCL School of Pharmacy, University College London (UCL), UCL’s Pro-Vice Provost for Africa and The Middle East. Ijeoma has been awarded various prizes for her work, notably the UK Department for Business Innovation Skills’ Women of Outstanding Achievement in Science Engineering and Technology award (http://www.theukrc.org/women/women-of-outstanding-achievement/2007-collection/professor-ijeoma-uchegbu), the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Pharmaceutical Scientist of the Year 2012 and the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences Innovative Science Award 2016. Ijeoma was elected to the Controlled Release Society College of Fellows in 2013 and was made an Eminent Fellow of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2013. Ijeoma is the editor of three books, a named inventor on 11 granted patents and has authored over 180 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Ijeoma’s research has been featured on BBC Woman’s Hour and more recently in The Guardian.

Russ Hornung is a Business Development representative for Drug Delivery and Packaging for W.L. Gore & Associates (GORE). Russ began his career at with a BSEE (Electrical Engineering) from The Pennsylvania State University and went to work at Westinghouse as a design & new product development engineer. He later transitioned into new business development representative while studying MSEE at Johns Hopkins University. Russ received his MBA from the Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh. Since 1996, Russ has held various Product Management and Business Development positions at Gore focused on providing unique and valued material based solutions to solve difficult customer problems.

Dr. Ajay Khopade is a Vice President R&D and Heading non-oral speciality division at Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (SPIL). With over 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical product development, in his current role as VP-R&D, is responsible for development of SPILs complex generic and differentiated product development. Before this, he was with SPARC, a SPILs spun off company where he responsible for SPARC’s innovative and differentiating drug product portfolio and product life-cycle management through strategic innovation planning & road mapping. Dr. Khopade has extensive end-to-end (ideation-technology development-preclinical POC-clinical-commercial) development experience across multiple therapeutic areas in novel parenteral dosage forms. He has participated as CMC expert in the submission of number of INDs, NDAs and technology evaluation for in-licensing opportunities. He is an inventor of a platform nanotechnology in the field of oncology (Nanotecton®), ophthalmics (GFR®, SMM® Trisurf® and TearAct®), liposome and depot injections protected by various IPs globally with over a dozen patents. Most of these technologies have endured clinical tests to reach into the market. Dr. Khopade has been a Humboldt post-doctoral fellow at Max Plank institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Sagar, MP, India. His areas of interest are understanding physical chemistry of drug delivery system design.

Susan Rosenbaum, J.D., is Founder, Chairman & CEO of Lauren Sciences; 10 years successful biotech visionary, entrepreneurial leader, strategic executive, motivated manager w/experience and expertise. Licensed breakthrough V-Smart® nanotechnology for BBB delivery from BGU, Israel; built Lauren Sciences LLC, multiple medical and scientific collaborations, 5-member MAB/SAB of KOLs, 12 foundation grant awards, innovative V-Smart® platform applications, transformative V-Smart® pipeline products in pre-clinical development for CNS; co-authored DD&D March 2018 cover feature, presented at 36 scientific conferences, w/posters at 7 scientific meetings, made Lauren Sciences a BIO 2018 winner and 1st Place Winner Global Healthcare Innovation at BIO 2019. Founder (present): Lauren Sciences LLC; Maya Sciences LLC; Founder (past): investment banking firm (Rosenbaum & Co.), corporate finance law firm (Rosenbaum, P.C.); Private and public company BODs; Nat’l/internat’l author/speaker.

Sudhakar Garad received his Ph.D. from the Bombay College of Pharmacy, University of Mumbai, India in 1998 in Pharmaceutical Drug Delivery Technology with Dr, M.S Nagarsenker. Soon after completion of his Ph.D., he worked with Pfizer, India for less than a year in clinical research. Taking into consideration his excellent credentials during his Ph.D, he was selected as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Connecticut to understand micro-environmental properties above dissolving surface of the polymers. After his post-doctoral fellowship, he worked with Vertex pharmaceutical for a period of three years as Senior Investigator in formulation development group. After Vertex, he joined Novartis as a Group Head. He worked with Novartis for 9 years and joined as a Director of formulation development at Cubist Pharmaceuticals/Merck for 2.5 years. Currently Sudhakar is working as a Global head of Chemical and Pharmaceutical profiling (Discovery Pharmaceutics) and Disease Area Head (New Indications) at Novartis. His primary role is collaborate with research colleagues and build the right biopharmaceutical properties into new chemical entities, if not enable them via solubility/dissolution enhancement technologies to expedite molecules into tox and clinical studies. He is also responsible for enabling research, clinical and commercial molecules via novel delivery technologies (Brain targeting, permeability enhancement, TI improvement etc). He has many publications, book chapters and patents. In last 20 years of his career he has taken more than 200 new chemical entities in clinical studies across dozen disease areas ( CVM, Oncology, ATI, MS, Respiratory, NS, GI, Antibacterial, Tropical diseases, HCV etc), via oral, parenteral, inhalation and transdermal route of administration. He serves as a technical R and D expert to research Disease Area for hematology, hepatology and kidney disease area.

Dr. Ajay Khopade is a Vice President R&D and Heading non-oral speciality division at Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (SPIL). With over 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical product development, in his current role as VP-R&D, is responsible for development of SPILs complex generic and differentiated product development. Before this, he was with SPARC, a SPILs spun off company where he responsible for SPARC’s innovative and differentiating drug product portfolio and product life-cycle management through strategic innovation planning & road mapping. Dr. Khopade has extensive end-to-end (ideation-technology development-preclinical POC-clinical-commercial) development experience across multiple therapeutic areas in novel parenteral dosage forms. He has participated as CMC expert in the submission of number of INDs, NDAs and technology evaluation for in-licensing opportunities. He is an inventor of a platform nanotechnology in the field of oncology (Nanotecton®), ophthalmics (GFR®, SMM® Trisurf® and TearAct®), liposome and depot injections protected by various IPs globally with over a dozen patents. Most of these technologies have endured clinical tests to reach into the market. Dr. Khopade has been a Humboldt post-doctoral fellow at Max Plank institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Sagar, MP, India. His areas of interest are understanding physical chemistry of drug delivery system design.

Dr. Anne Moore graduated with a degree in Biochemistry University College Cork. She completed a PhD in HIV vaccine immunology with Professor Kingston Mills. Dr. Moore subsequently embarked upon post-doctoral work on defects in immune responses in HIV-infected individuals in the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia and further work on recombinant vaccines against viruses such as HIV and Ebola virus in Dr. Gary Nabel's lab then at the University of Michigan. As a senior immunologist in Prof. Adrian Hill's group in the University of Oxford, she developed several T cell inducing vaccine candidates against malaria and TB and was involved in clinical trials of these and other vaccine candidates in Oxford and malaria endemic areas in Africa. She was a Lecturer in Pharmacology, based in the School of Pharmacy, in early 2007. In 2016 she worked for 10 months with the vaccine biotech company, Vaxart, South San Francisco while on sabbatical. Here she worked on tablet-based oral vaccines for a range of therapeutic and prophylactic vaccine. In September 2018, she took a position as Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry and Cell Biology.

Tom is the Business Unit Manager at Sonceboz SA. In this role Tom created a strong network with pharma companies and he is leading the Sonceboz Medical Team to create the next generation of wearable drug delivery devices. Tom brings more than 14 years of experience in business development, sales and field service activities in medical devices and pharmaceutical packaging companies. Before joining Sonceboz - from 2007 to 2016, Tom held multiple management positions at Boston Scientific ranging from Field Service Engineer to Sales and Service Manager. During his tenure at Boston Scientific Tom drove sales in his area of responsibility year over year in the double-digit range and he built and lead a team of 16 field service engineers while establishing a novel charge for service model in the German Cardiac Rhythm Management marketplace. Prior joining Boston Scientific in the years 1997 to 2000 Tom pursued an apprenticeship in Mechanical Engineering at Uhlmann Packaging Systems which provided him with highly valuable practical insight in the world of pharmaceutical packaging. Tom holds a certificate of advanced studies (CAS) from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne in Management of Biotech and Medtech Ventures as well as an MBA with distinction from FOM Munich University. Tom also earned an engineering diploma degree in Medical Engineering from Furtwangen-University, Germany. Tom loves to scuba dive, explore the world and he is a renowned specialist in creating traditional Swabian meals.

Dr. Patrick Garidel is currently employed as Head of Pharmaceutical and Protein Science at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG. His activities are focused on the development biologics from the downstream process to drug product (liquid and solid formulations, freeze-drying). His expertise covers: development of drug delivery system and formulations, packaging/devices, process development, bio-analytic and protein purification. He is responsible for the establishment of innovative platform technologies for e.g. powder inhalation, gene therapy, in silico based predictive tools for molecule properties, particle analytics. Additionally, he is interested in the development of new concepts and strategies for protein purification, stabilisation, delivery and protein/colloid chemistry in general. PG studied chemistry and biotechnology at the University of Kaiserslautern, pharmaceutical sciences and regulatory affairs at the University of Strasbourg and IP & innovation management at the University of Koblenz-Landau. He has a PhD in biophysics. During his university career, he took over various academic positions at the Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmacy, Physical Chemistry at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, DESY/Hamburg, Rutgers University and Hospital for Special Surgery/New York

Paul is a Senior Principal at Roche / Genentech where he leads the Smart Device Technology Center. Paul has 20 years of experience in medical device R&D, strategic marketing, product management, clinical research, and medical informatics. Prior to Roche / Genentech, Paul was with Becton Dickinson(BD), as Worldwide Director of Strategic Marketing in their Pharmaceutical Systems business. Paul and his team were responsible for all upstream and downstream marketing strategy for BD's self-injection business, including pen injectors, autoinjectors, and wearable patch injectors. Prior to that role, Paul was with WellDoc, Inc. as Director of Product Marketing, where he built and led the marketing team and was responsible for product management activities for WellDoc’s portfolio of mobile health solutions. He was also the Core Team Leader for WellDoc’s landmark BlueStar™ product, a class II medical device and the world’s first reimbursed, prescription-only software for type 2 diabetes. Paul’s prior experience includes 10 years at BD in the Diabetes Care business. Paul was responsible for the development and launch of the award-winning BD InterActiv® Diabetes Software, and was a member of the joint BD / Medtronic core team that launched ParadigmLink®, the world’s first wireless blood glucose meter. Paul holds three issued patents in medical software and drug delivery devices and multiple patent applications covering software and medical devices. He is also an author and co-author of numerous peer-reviewed articles in medical informatics and in diabetes. His education background includes undergraduate studies in cognitive science and graduate work in health informatics and finance at the University of Minnesota and New York University.

Twinkle Christian is a Process Development Scientist in the Drug Product Technologies group at Amgen. She has 14 years of industry experience in formulation development across diverse modalities and has led the advancement of multiple programs from early discovery to clinical trials and commercialization. Twinkle’s expertise encompasses high concentration formulation and drug delivery of biologics, investigating protein-protein interactions, and macromolecular crystallography. She is an adjunct instructor at California State University, Channel Islands & University of California, Santa Barbara. Twinkle holds a Master’s in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and was employed at Alza (Johnson & Johnson) and VaxGen prior to Amgen.

Scott Brown has over 30 years of experience in device development and combination products. He currently leads Merck’s Device Development group. He has a long history of successfully introducing products to the market and has played a key role in the successful development and commercialization of over 19 products. He joined Schering Plough in 1998 to start a Device Development group in support of the growing need for combination products. While building and leading this group he has also been the recipient of Schering Plough’s President’s Award for Development in 2003, Merck’s Presidential Fellowship Award in 2012 and New Jersey’s Thomas Edison Patent Award for the development of Merck’s next generation dry powder inhaler. Prior to joining Schering-Plough/Merck, he collaborated with engineers and scientists at MIT and Therics to develop a 3D printing machine used for complex tissue implants and oral dosage forms. Prior to this he worked for the UK based PA Consulting Group as a medical device and general technology consultant for many organizations including Biogen, Upjohn, J&J Ethicon, Amgen, Bayer, Alcon, Smith and Nephew, Abbott, Nycomed, Cardiac Pacemakers Inc., Chrysler, Ford and General motors. His academic background includes an MS in Engineering Management, and BS degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and Psychology.

Prior to joining MedinCell in 2008, Dr Christophe Roberge graduated with a PhD in polymer science from the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique in Montreal, QC and held the position of Technical Director in a medical device company based in Montreal. He has been involved in many projects at MedinCell, aimed at designing long-acting formulations - based on the BEPO® technology platform - for a wide variety of pharmaceutical active compounds, from the proof of concept phase to more advanced development steps

David Lyon received his B.S. in Chemistry from Western Washington University and Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Oregon. Following a Post-Doctoral stint at the California Institute of Technology, David joined Bend Research as a Research Chemist in 1991. During his tenure at Bend Research he held positions of increasing responsibility culminating in the role of Senior Vice President, Research prior to the company’s acquisition by Capsugel and, subsequently, Lonza. He currently serves as a Sr. Fellow, Global R&D advising internal and external collaborations in bioavailability enhancement technologies, modified release and bioprocessing.

Emre Türeli is the CSO of MyBiotech. He holds a PhD degree in Pharmaceutical Technology from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. He is an internationally recognized scientist with more than 15 years of international research and development experience, as well as executive management experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He was the CEO and co-founder of former MJR Pharmjet. He has held management positions in various pharmaceutical companies. His expertise is on drug delivery systems, nanoparticle development and production method development in pharmaceutical industrial environment with strong focus on GMP compliance.

Tony Listro is Vice President, Technology of Foster Delivery Science, Inc., a CDMO focused on novel drug delivery dosage forms based on polymer processing technologies. He is responsible for the continued research and development of new melt extrusion technologies as well as guiding Foster’s team of engineers and scientists in the contract development and manufacturing of specific formulations and dosage forms for clients in the pharmaceutical industry. Tony is an expert in the areas of polymer materials and polymer processing. He has worked on blending active pharmaceutical ingredients with polymers for various drug delivery applications including oral and implantable dosage forms for more than 15 years. Tony holds both a BS and MS in Plastics Engineering from the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, MA, and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA. He holds two issued US patents and has authored and/or co-authored 20 publications. Tony is a member of the Society of Plastics Engineers, Controlled Release Society, and AAPS.

Dr. Seungpyo Hong is Milton J. Henrich Chair in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, and serves as Director of Wisconsin Center for NanoBioSystems (WisCNano) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). He also holds appointments as Adjunct Professor in the Colleges of Pharmacy at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and at Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, He graduated from Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea with B.S. and M.S. degrees in polymer engineering in 1999 and 2001, respectively. After working as a researcher at Korea Institute Science and Technology (KIST), he started his Ph.D. study at the University of Michigan working with his advisors Profs. Mark Banaszak Holl and James Baker, Jr. Dr. Hong graduated with his PhD in Macromolecular Science and Engineering in 2006 and joined MIT as a postdoctoral associate in the laboratory of Prof. Robert Langer. From 2008 to 2014, he was Assistant Professor at UIC where he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2014, and subsequently joined the UW-Madison faculty as full Professor in 2016. Since 2008, he has led a research group under the major research theme of “Biomimetic Nanotechnology” for cancer treatment. To date, Prof. Hong’s research has culminated in ~100 peer-reviewed articles that have a combined total number of over 14,000 citations (h-index: 38), 7 book chapters, and 20 issued or pending patents, while delivering over 150 invited talks worldwide and over 200 conference proceedings.

Jon Lenn has direct responsibility for MedPharm’s operations in the United States based out of Durham, North Carolina. Since joining in 2015 he has led MedPharm’s development of cutting edge performance models for assessing penetration and activity of clients’ products targeted towards key biochemical pathways. He has over 15 years’ experience in developing dermatological projects with Connetics, Stiefel and GSK and has been directly involved with the development and approval of 8 products. He received his PhD on the topical delivery of macromolecules from the University of Reading.

Satu Lakio’ speaker bio: Satu Lakio is the Pharmaceutical Development Manager at Nanoform. She earned her PhD at the University of Helsinki, Finland, focusing on enhancing the understanding of pharmaceutical powder processing. Dr Lakio completed her postdoctoral period at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, in the field of inhalation powder research. She has previously worked in several positions within academia and as an Associate Principal Scientist at AstraZeneca and Senior Development Manager at Orion Pharma. Dr Lakio holds an adjunct professorship at the University of Helsinki and University of Eastern Finland (Pharmaceutical technology). Currently, her research focuses on the pharmaceutical development of nanoformedTM particles.

Rebeca Garcia-Fandino is a computational chemistry researcher working at the Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials (CiQUS), at Santiago de Compostela University (Spain). She is one of the main co-founders and CSO of MD.USE Innovations. She is author of more than 40 research articles on Molecular Dynamics and Quantum methods applied to different systems, from small reactive molecules to supramolecular systems, including cyclodextrins. She is also author of several book chapters, a patent and software register. The aim of her research is the design of new and improved antibacterial/antineoplasic agents based on understanding their action mechanism, both in solution and at the level of membranes using computational tools. She can be reached at rebeca.garcia.fandino@usc.es.

Dr. Gerhard Mayer works in Business Development for Sensile Medical AG, a Swiss company specializing in liquid drug delivery devices. As of July 2018, Sensile Medical has become part of the Gerresheimer Group. Gerhard joined Sensile Medical in 2011. He has a broad background in the business of Drug Delivery Systems and Pharmaceutical Marketing, both in Europe and the U.S. His extensive experience of over 30 years covers Business Development, Lifecycle Management and Marketing in the areas of parenterals; vials, cartridges and pre-fillable syringes; self-injection systems labeling and brand security solutions to the pharmaceutical industry; as well as treatment for MS, Betaferon. His academic background is Economics, with a PhD from the University of Kiel in Germany.

Shriram is a member of the scientific consulting group at Quotient and has a comprehensive experience in the biopharmaceutical aspects of formulation design and development. He has a thorough understanding of the new technologies in the field of drug absorption modelling and has been involved in the development and optimization of biorelevant tests to provide in vitro, in silico and in vivo correlations. Prior to joining Quotient in 2019, Shriram was a member of the modelling and simulations group at Certara, UK, where he was involved in the development of mechanistic modelling tools to inform a rational formulation design.

Magdalena holds a PhD from a University of Lausanne. She formerly worked at EMPA, St. Gallen – the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology. During her career, she worked in multiple projects related to drug product formulation, tissue engineering, 3D in vitro systems and drug delivery systems. After joining Novartis in 2015, she focused on cell and viral vector drug products pharmaceutical development. Magdalena contributed to multiple IND/IMPD filling including BLA filing for Kymriah, the first approved ATMPs in the US. She is currently LVV Technical Development Lead for External Partners within Cell and Gene Technical Development at Novartis. Magdalena is a member of APV Drug Delivery Focus Group, as an expert for ATMPs.